NRG Energy to offer rooftop solar to its 2.3M retail customers

Dive Brief:

In what NRG Energy views as its largest growth area in the next several years, NRG intends to offer rooftop solar to its retail customer base, which stands at nearly 2.3 million customers, David Crane, NRG president and CEO, said during an earnings conference call Friday.

One of NRG's top priorities for this year is to expand in distributed generation through strategic partnerships.

NRG is trying to be a company that can bridge the old centralized power system with the emerging decentralized system, Crane said.

Dive Insight:

NRG is preparing for what Crane believes are inevitable changes to the grid system. “We are positioning ourselves to succeed during a prolonged period during which the traditional centralized grid-based power system coexists with the fast emerging, high growth distributed sector, much like how fixed line long distance graciously gave way to cellular world dominance only after a couple of decades of relatively peaceful coexistence,” Crane said.

Rooftop solar is a top priority for NRG. “We are big believers in this view that various analysts ... have also come to the conclusion that within the next 12 to 24 months in 24 states, roughly 20 to 24 states, residential solar will be cost competitive, and where we see our advantage is in combining that with actually supply of system power,” Crane said.